The Barbarians
The Barbarians '''(formally styling themselves as the '''Great Armada, a name that was rarely used by others) were a military power which emerged in RAR! Space during the 26th century. Forged out of pirates, criminals, mercenaries and renegades, they have been likened to the historic primitives which often posed threats to the more developed civilizations before the advent of gunpowder weaponry, invading, subjugating and plundering planets to feed their war machine. The Barbarians possed a distinct threat to galactic stability before their eventual defeat. History of the Barbarians Barbarian Society and Heirarchy Barbarian Society was Fuedal in nature, centered around the rule of Joel Forester who gave himself the title of Khan of the Great Armada. He and his staff of senior most clerks and most senior vassals set policy, giving orders and commanding attacks. He directly controlled the largest forces in the Barbarian Hordes, at its apex making up about 45% of the Total Barbarian Forces as well as being disproptionately well trained and equiped, although at most 10% of the the Barbarian physical territory. He also commanded various oversight forces to ensure loyalty and met quotas on part of his subordinates. Beneith him were his vassels, various warlords who proved effective. Many of them being captains who served in his fleet before the invasion of New Colombia as well as some praticularly capable officers who rose through the ranks latter. Each Lord was given a fief from which he or she was to run as they saw fit with autocratic authority, and would in turn raise forces and provide tribute to Forester. They were also given quotas to meet in terms of industrial output and forces raised and would provide men on request. Those that were sucsessful in battle or provided economic support gained more lands and people as well as a greater degree of forgiveness. Those that chronically failed had their lands and forces distributed among their rivals. Their was plenty of competition to outdo the other, providing the driving force between rapid industrialization programs to help feed the war machine. Lower ranking vassals often swore feilty to higher ranking ones. The Smallest feifs were agricultural or remote asteroid and had a few thousand people, the largest encompased continents. Beneith them was the warrior classes. Warriors in the Barbarian society were afforded superior treatement, given access to specialized recreational facilities, received a cut in plunder and could advance their positition, possibly gaining a feif. They were also used to enforce the will of Forester and his vassals, which gave them authority and the ability to gain more income through corruption. On a roughly equal level was the administrative class, these were under tight observation and supervation and had the job of serving as managers of factories At the bottom of Barbarian Society were the subjects. Most of which were forced to work on various industrial projects to help support the Barbarian war machine and pushed themselves to capacities. Standards of living fell considerably and crime rose due to a lack of effective law enforcement (although what did exist was quite brutal). This was praticularly noticible just after the conquest of New Colombia, although expereince in statecraft curbed their excesses (such as setting aside some facilities and work crews to mantain sewers to prevent disease outbreak, work days of less than 14 hours and the allowance of some minimal recreational time). Crime became rampant as a thriving black market emerged, Barbarian Space Forces Technology Much of what the Barbarians used was pirated designs or was based heavily off pirated designs. That said, there was considerable experimentation among the Barbarians. Development of superior product was a good way of gaining status for a warlord and as such, a vast number of prototypes were made and were tested in battle. What Barbarians sought most of all was ease of production and firepower. Marauders The main craft that the Barbarians produced were marauders. Triangular ships about 150-300 meters long: marauders (with some exception) sacrificed range for maximum reactor output and had bussard collectors to refill their tanks. Hundreds of types of Marauders flew out of Barbarian shipyards with a variety of armaments. The most common were box launched missiles, gatling gauss weapons, gamma ray lasers and forward plasma weapons. Quality varied imensly, from fairly reliable and respectable craft for their size, to substandard vessels made by those with minimal resources who decided to cut every corner possible. Even though space was usually at a premium, marauders always carried breaching equipment and complements of marines. Some experimentations with stealth technology were made. Frankensteins Frankensteins were flying patchworks, various peices of civilian shipping that were captured were taken apart and rebuilt into warships. Salvaged remains were also used in this regard. No two frankensteins were alike. Typically they had a highly decentralized construction which could make them quite hard to disable and carried very large arsenals for their size or served as carriers. Frankensteins were generally slow and ungainly spacecraft that were often subject to major rebuilds after battle. They were also renound for being noisy, uncomfortable and dangerous work places. Assignment to a Frankenstein was often a disciplinary measure. Capital Ships Strike Craft The most common Barbarian made strikecraft were Buctherbird class fighter pods. These low class spacecraft were quite standardized, being the result of a design contest of several prototypes. Butcherbirds were small fighters designed for maximum manuverability easily discernable by their round forward cockpit and three triangular wings, though it was only capable of the most basic atmospheric flight. Butcherbirds were as a default armed with a single low power laser and six missile hardpoints, but could be outfitted wtih a variety of weapons including railguns, crude plasma cannons and additional missiles and lasers. Customization was quite common. While quite manuverable and lightweight (thus making them easy to transport), they were compartively slow especially with additional weapons and were rather fragile, which ment they generally relied on numbers to win the day. Barbarian Ground Forces Conscripts Volunteers Mercenaries Pirate Warriors Janissaries Not to be confused with their Klavostani forces of the same name, Janissaries were an elite force and among the most capable barbarian soldiers to which Forester had an exclusive monopoly on. Modeled after the old ottoman model Janissaries were recruited at childhood (ages 4-8) from orphans and raised to serve as soldiers and to be loyal to Forester. Janissaries were given the best equipment the Barbarians could manufacture and in larger quanities. Janissaries could be assigned to warlords temporarilly and receiving a force of Janissaries was considered a sign of favor. Typical tactics involving janissaries was that they were deployed as a second wave, after other forces deemed more disposable were sent into an area and had engaged the enemy. Janissaries had at their disposal a large number of armored forces and power suits for their hardened veterans. Even after the bulk of Barbarian forces had been destroyed during the Liberation campaigns, janissaries would often engage in guerilla campaigns. Those that fled after Forester's death often became the most feared pirates. Category:History